Rendering the Word in Theological Hermeneutics

✍ Scribed by Mark Alan Bowald

• Publisher: Ashgate
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 215
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book proposes an original typology for grasping the differences between diverse types of biblical interpretation, fashioned in a triangle around a major theological and philosophical lacuna: the relation between divine and human action. Despite their purported concern for reading God's word, most modern and postmodern approaches to biblical interpretation do not seriously consider the role of divine agency as having a real influence in and on the process of reading Scripture. Mark Bowald seeks to correct and clarify this deficiency by demonstrating the inevitable role that divine agency plays in contemporary proposals in relation to human agency enacted in the composition of the biblical text and the reader. This book presents an important contribution to the emerging field of theological hermeneutics.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
List of Figures......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Acknowledgments......Page 12
1 The Eclipsing and Usurping of Divine Agency in Enlightenment Epistemology and their Influence on Scriptural Hermeneutics......Page 14
Kant’s Proscriptions to Reason’s Activity: Defining the Ideal Knowing Act......Page 17
Further Defining Kant’s Critique of Antecedent Judgments with Special Attention to the Relationship of Human and Divine Agency......Page 22
Clearing the Modern Ground: The Eclipse of God’s Agency......Page 26
The Hermeneutic Reversal: The Usurping of God’s Agency......Page 29
Summary......Page 32
2 A Triangle Typology: Mapping Divine and Human Agency in Contemporary Theological Hermeneutics......Page 38
The Triangle: Coordinating Divine and Human Action......Page 39
Type Two: Human Agency in the reading and reception of Scripture......Page 43
Type Three: Divine Agency in the Hermeneutics of Scripture......Page 45
A Clarifying Conversation With Four Other Typologies......Page 46
Summary: Looking Back and Looking Ahead......Page 54
3 Type One: Human Agency in the “Text”......Page 58
The Evangelical Tradition......Page 59
The Early Hans Frei: The Eclipse of Modern Biblicism......Page 61
Kevin Vanhoozer: From General Hermeneutics to General Christian Hermeneutics to Divine Canonical-Linguistics......Page 71
Francis Watson: Negotiating Text, Church, and World......Page 86
The Implications of Type 1: Benefits and Detriments......Page 95
4 Type Two: Human Agency in the “Reading”......Page 100
David Kelsey: Using Scripture......Page 102
The Later Hans Frei: The Emergence of Meaning in the Tradition......Page 108
Werner Jeanrond: Reviving the Critical Interpreter......Page 120
Stephen Fowl: The Community’s Underdetermined Engagement with Scripture......Page 128
The Implications of Type Two: Benefits and Detriments......Page 134
Karl Barth: God’s Word as God’s Act......Page 138
Nicholas Wolterstorff: Reading for Divine Discourse......Page 150
James K. A. Smith: Post-Phenomenological Language of God......Page 161
The Implications of Type Three: Benefits and Detriments......Page 174
6 Implications of the Triangle Typology: A Modest Proposal for A Divine-Rhetorical Hermeneutics......Page 176
Before, Beside or Beyond the Bible: The Role of ‘Principles’ in Theological Interpretation of Scripture......Page 180
Interrogating Three Modern Myths of Reading and Interpreting the Bible......Page 183
The Heart of the Problem: Interrogating Hans Frei......Page 185
Reading the Bible as Divine-Rhetorical Hermeneutics......Page 187
Conclusion......Page 194
Bibliography......Page 198
H......Page 214
W......Page 215